Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V Snyder

Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V Snyder 

Publishers: Harlequin MIRA
Published Date: December 18th 2012
From: NetGalley
My rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis:

Hunted, Killed—Survived?As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

Review:

Another of my favourite books from 2011 was A Touch of Power. What affected me most was that Avry was not born to be a fighter or a killer, she's a healer, she has no agenda whether the sick are on one side or the other. She's really tuned into the forest and trees, and the peace and death lilies. The backdrop of flora is great. And her love interest is the awesome Prince Kerrick (of course she doesn't know he's a prince in the beginning). He's also a forest mage which is really cool! Their side-kicks were a fun, friendly bunch and at the end of TOP our fearless warriors are on the verge of battle against Tohon, who epitomises evil! Now that Prince Ryne has awoken from his magical stasis, thanks to Avry, everything-all preparation for the oncoming war should go to plan, right? Hmm. Dead wrong. Dead, because Tohon has found a way to resurrect soldiers, who, for the time being are impossible to kill. So the odds aren't good. Wrong, because all the powerful people choose sides. Some people on the good side such as High Priestess Estrid refuse to kill POW's. Jael is also on the good side, and that can't be all good because she killed Flea in the last book and attempted to kill Avry.

So, in the beginning of Scent of Magic Kerrick and Avry decide to split up and go their separate ways. Neither of them want to, Kerrick especially doesn't want to leave Avry, but Avry wants to reunite with her sister desperately. Her sister who despises her.  They both begin their travels but both end up on very different adventures. My favourite part was Avry getting her new identity and the troops not recognising her, even her own sister and of course, Jael. Avry sets to work training the troops with forest warfare and Kerrick, once he's left his family journeys north to march head on and drive the North Tribes back from invading.

A few new characters join the fray, Avry gets to know the troops and Sergeants a little better though she hates lying to them about who she really is. Things all come to a head when Cellina meets Kerrick and surprisingly lets him go. However her message gets passed down that she actually had her ufas (I'm guessing they're like wolves) kill him. When Avry finds out she's devastated.

Eventually the twists and turns of the story have you wondering who is really trustworthy and who is being really devious.

In the end Kerrick and Avry finally meet up again but its a bittersweet moment as the end of the story leaves you hanging..

I loved this story, I devoured this book and all the while the story continued I prayed that the two main characters would eventually reunite their love. Sadly it was only in the final chapter but what a journey they had both been on.I'm now eagerly anticipating the next book.
-CB

You can reach Maria V Snyder here: 

Web
Blog

 Facebook

Goodreads